December 2011

Welcome to the Month of December- I did my stretches and went for a short walk; too dang windy and cold outside to do anything else.
I worked on Paula’s website.
It rained a little here and there all day.

Friday 02- I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer ran a mile, and lifted weights. It was a nice sunny but cold day.
I spent a few hours working on the Copper Mountain Mesa website and sent out the newsletter.

Saturday 03- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
Renee and Craig came by for a visit.
I took a video of my frozen cement pond; it’s now officially Winter!
I went over to Blake and Linda’s for a visit and to see their new puppy; an Australian herding type puppy. I got back home just before dark.

Sunday 04- I did my stretches.
I worked on the Gross Polluter (my truck) cleaning out the back of it which was really dirty and filled with garbage, filling it with gas, and pumping up the tires with air.
I then worked on the kitchen, pulling everything off the shelves, wiping them down and throwing old junk out that’s been hanging around for a few years.
I went for an evening walk.
National Novel Writing Month had ended and I went to claim my certificate, it said that I wasn’t verified. I told them I used the Validator on the 20th of November. They told me that the Validator only officially started verifying on the 25th and anything before that date was only used to count the words. Then they said I could email them a scrambled copy of my novel and they would do the count because the Validator was now turned off. So I went scrambled my novel and emailed it to them. Now I await their verdict.

Monday 05- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer ran a mile, and lifted weights.
I mostly fiddled around the house.
I did a little webwork on Paula’s website.
I went for an evening walk.
National Novel Writing Month sent me an email:
"Hi Bob! Unfortunately, when you scrambled your document... you removed
your spaces! As a result, the document only comes up to about 1500
words or so. When you scramble, you have to be careful not to include any spaces, or it will mess up. You'll need to try again, and send me a document
with the spaces preserved."

Then they sent me this email:
"Bob, I went ahead and flagged your account. Don't worry about
resending. :) Welcome to the winner's circle!"

I sent them this:
I read your first email and thought to myself, I give up!
Then I read this one and YAY!!!!!!
I think I did about everything wrong on the Nano website :(
Thank you Heather!
Bob
It’s dang cold tonight!!!

Tuesday 06- I did my stretches and ran two miles.
I went for my evening walk.

I watched an episode of “Castle” on Hulu.

Wednesday 07- I did my stretches; going to town with Kelly today.
We went to Home Depot to get roofing supplies to fix Stoney’s garage, then ate at the Sizzler, WalMart, Starter Bros, two pet stores to get food for her critters, got gas, and got home at 9:45PM.

Thursday 08- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I replaced the deadlock on my front door that went bad, and did a bunch of small stuff around the house.
I went for my evening walk.
I watched “Warehouse 13” on Hulu.

Friday 09- I did my stretches. I decided that the weather was nice enough to head on over to Stoney’s house and repair the garage roof. I got there around 10AM. I brought some laundry to do while I was working and got that going. I hauled all the tools and roofing material onto the roof and started prepping it to lay down the Henry’s roofing tar. Roger Smith (pictured) came over to help and we got the job done in no time. I was pretty sore afterwards and just surfed the web.

Saturday 10- Kelly called me at 4:30AM to wake me up for the Lunar Eclipse. Dang it was really cold outside, but it was clear and I was able to get two good pictures with my lowly Kodak camera while yapping with Kelly.I went back to sleep and did my exercises and ran a mile.I worked around the house fixing this and that little thing. I even gathered a whole bunch of trash from around the yard and took it over to the trash bin at Stoney’s.
It's Universal Declaration of Human Rights Day!

Sunday 11- I did my stretches. I laid some more gravel around the corners of the front patio. John came by and we jawed for a long spell.I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa website and sent out the newsletter.It rained sometime during the night.

Monday 12- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, lifted weights, and was about to go for a mile run when it started to rain.I stayed in most of the day reading and goofing off.Dang, I forgot to go to the Neighborhood Watch meeting. I’ll catch it next month.

Tuesday 13- I did my stretches and went for a mile run with five pound weights and got back just before it started to rain.I finished reading two books: one a short How To on exercising, and the other “The Art of Thinking” by Ernest Dimnet, first published in 1928. I read this book in the 1970s. The book was very hard for me to read; he uses a whole lot of French phrases and talks about authors and poets I’ve never heard of and who are mostly French. I do have to say that I have learned from this man because, which has surprised me, I have done mostly what the book has written from my first reading many years ago. “Reading the news as if it were history” is one of his thoughts.UPS finally came just before dark and brought me my new Celestron 20x80 binoculars for astronomy. Dang these are big! I now discovered I need a mount for them! I took them outside once it was dark and focused on Jupiter and its moons, and then the Andromeda Galaxy. I went back outside after 10PM to watch the Geminid meteor shower. Saw a few nice bright ones crossing the night’s sky on their way to a fiery demise.

Things I found online that were interesting to me this week:

What is a Higgs Boson? (Oh now I understand!)


TED - Michael Mann - A Look Into Our Climate: Past To Present To Future. (is it getting hot in here?)


Pendulum Waves! (Really neat to watch!)


メタル布教活動としてMr. Crowleyのギターを弾いてみた (A Japanese girl who can really play guitar!)



Wednesday 14- the weather was cold and overcast and I don’t think it got out of the low fifties. I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, punched the heavy bag for about ten minutes, and ran two miles. It was a great workout!I got the Harley out and rode it to the mailbox and back; it needed to be run for a while.I am starting to do my studies again.I went for a walk listening to a random astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: the methods used in finding new planets around stars other than our own.I updated my blogs; I have four where I post now, but I’m getting rid of MySpace at the end of the year and will not post there again. MySpace has become unblogable (Hmm, maybe I created a new word :)I watched some YouTube videos on how to punch a heavy bag. I ain’t doing none too bad from what I saw, but I do have to learn to bob and weave. Right now I just stand there and hit the bag.I played my guitar for a spell.

Thursday 15- the weather outside was again cold and overcast. I did my stretches, yoga, ran a mile with weights, and using the 30-30-30 heavy bag method punched the heck out of the bag: felt mighty invigorating.I swept the patio really good getting rid of all the dirt and leaves from the desert willow out front. I did my studies throughout the day: Latin, astronomy, entomology, and reading a book called “How to Study in College”. I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: the Hertzsprung–Russell (HR) diagram that compares stars Spectral Class: temperature and color (OBAFGKM), versus their luminosity: Absolute Magnitude. As a star is formed out of dust in a nebula, by gravitational contraction, it reaches a temperature of 15 million Kelvin (I believe) that ignites the fusion process. Most stars fall on the main sequence and star there for a spell; the Sun will be on there for another five billion years. Very massive and hot stars may only be on the main sequence for maybe a few million years burning their fuel very quickly. Compare this to a Red Dwarf that is about 40 percent the mass of our Sun, will burn their fuel for trillions of years. I got the wood stove fired up for the second time this winter. It felt good when I got back from my night run and soaked my feet in hot water!I practiced my guitar.

Friday 16- the weather is still cold and overcast, but add to this the high winds! At 11AM it was 49 degrees.I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and went for a mile run. Oh, and I punched the heck out of the heavy bag again :)I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.I did my studies.I went for a short walk because I had to be around when UPS shows up (he never did), and listened to a continuation of yesterdays astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko.I did some stretches and went for a night run. I wanted to checkout my new binoculars but the sky was too overcast.I practiced my guitar.

Saturday 17- the weather was again overcast and it even rained late in the afternoon.I did my stretches and ran a mile.I called family and friends throughout the day as I worked around the house. John Massey came by and started showing me some math. He said that he will teach me; I have a mental block when it comes to math beyond addition. Well I did get a B in college algebra class.

Sunday 18- I decided to just kick back today and do whatever comes to mind. I did some reflection on recent events. I went out to the dirt road and gathered small rocks into a bucket and spread them around the cement pond.The night sky cleared enough for me to finally check out the 20x80 binoculars and I drank in the night sky!

Monday 19- the weather was nice and sunny.I did my stretches, lifted dumbbells, lifted weights, core trainer, ran a mile with weights, and punched the hell out of the heavy bag.Chris came by with a bag of groceries from the USDA food distribution. He said there were over a hundred folks showing up. I spent the day doing my studies.I went for a short walk and listened to another astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: neutron stars.The UPS driver finally showed up at 6PM with my new camera I ordered last week. It’s a Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ47 Digital Camera with 24x optical zoom, cool.

Tuesday 20- the weather began the day with some cold winds, but mellowed out later in the afternoon.I did my stretches, yoga, ran a mile, and rode my bike.I played around with the new camera checking out its 24x zoom. The dang thing has so many buttons and dials it’ll take me a while to figure it all out.I did my chores around the house cleaning this and that.I went over to John Massey’s for an early dinner. He lost his fancy knife with his name inscrolled upon it that he had for many years. He showed to me a few weeks ago and said, “I’ll never lose this knife.” We ate the chicken he got from the USDA Food Distribution yesterday; it turned out mighty good.I got back just before dark so I listened to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: more on neutron stars and beginning to talk about black holes.I decided to try to finish the textbook “Astronomy Today” by the end of the year. This is the book that I’ve been reading out loud for over a year now and need to put it to rest and move on to something else. Reading a text out load is a very slow process for me, but I read a whole of chapter 22 in about three or more hours. When I finished that I read from the books on college studying, and entomology. Then I did a lesson in Latin.I went for a night run and practiced my guitar when I got back inside where it was warm.

Wednesday 21- the weather was very nice, no clouds, with temps in the upper 50s.I did my stretches, lifted dumbbells, lifted weights, core trainer, ran a mile with weights, and punched the hell out of the heavy bag.I went over to Kelly’s to put her dead car battery on my charger and then took her to her mailbox.I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko. It was more on black holes and neutron stars; he gets sidetracked here and there and falls behind on his lectures.I then proceeded to read aloud the whole of chapter 23 about galaxies; that took about four hours. I’d write about it here but I’m kinda burnt out. I then read the other books of my studies- did you know that bugs can’t see the color red? That’s what my entomology book says. I did my stretches and went for a night run, fired up the wood stove, and soaked my feet in hot water.

I practiced my guitar.

Thursday 22- the weather was sunny but my cement pond was frozen when I got outside to do my morning exercises.
I did my stretches and ran a mile.
The winds came up later in the afternoon and it really started to blow hard so I skipped my evening walk and night run. I spent all day reading chapters 24 and 25 of “Astronomy today” and did my studies and practiced my guitar.


Friday 23- the weather was cold and windy all day and temps never made it into the 50s.
I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, ran a mile with weights, and punched the hell out of the heavy bag.
John Massey came by to ask if I’m ready. Ready for what, I asked. To go to town, he says. I don’t remember we made arrangements to go to town today, but hey I ain’t doing much of anything else except updating the Copper Mountain Mesa Website, so I ask him to wait a few minutes until I’m done. He wanted to go to the library and didn’t believe me when I told him they were closed on Fridays, but did believe the sign on the library’s front door. We stopped off at Home Depot and I got some building supplies while there.
We also stopped at Food For Less to get food; I’m not sure if it’s lesser than the other places I like to shop. I go back home just before nightfall and didn’t go for my walk, but did feed the doves.
I did my studies, but didn’t read aloud from the astronomy book because my jaw was sore from yesterday’s reading of the two chapters.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.

Saturday 24- what a beautiful day! It was nice and sunny.
I did my stretches and went for a mile run.
Sami called and I drove my Harley down to meet her in Joshua Tree. She came up here for a spell from San Diego for a visit with our mutual friend Sandy. We had lunch at Santana’s Restaurant and yapped about a book we are both working on. She made me a meal to take home; it was turkey, fried ribs, beans, and stuffing that I ate all of later in the night- it sure was might good!


Sunday 25- Christmas!
I just stayed home and yakked at folks on the phone.
I read aloud chapter 26 and part of 27 of the textbook “Astronomy Today” and have only a chapter and a half left to read before the year is up!!!


Monday 26- the weather is staying pleasant!
I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, ran a mile with weights, and did the 30-30-30 routine on the heavy bag.
Kula wanted me to find out for sure about when I’d be going to drive John to the doctor in Rancho Mirage down by Palm Springs, so I drove over to John’s to ask and spent a spell there yakking with him about his woodstove.
I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: Relativity.

Tuesday 27- another nice day.
I didn’t feel very well today and spent most of the day inside except when I drove over to Kelly’s to put her dead car battery on my charger and drive her to her mailbox.
I finished reading aloud the last chapter in the textbook “Astronomy Today” and feel relieved it is finally done.

Wednesday 28- I did my stretches and John picked me up for the trip to his doctor; I will be driving him back home after the procedure.
We arrived at the office at 12:30PM and I gave Kula a call when I was about 15min before. Kula and Tom were still in route from Redondo Beach where they left earlier in the morning and had just passed Palm Springs. I waited only about half an hour at our rendezvous at a nearby shopping center where I had walked as to make it easier for them to find me. I was so happy to see them when they arrived! We would only have a short visit before I’d have to take John back home. They would remain a few days and enjoy a mini vacation in the lower desert. They checked into a nearby hotel room, I think it was a Hilton, where we had lunch, chili and cornbread, which Kula had prepared; she’s a really good cook! We sat around yapping about this, that and other things until it was time for me to pick up John and take him on home. It surprises me that I have such wonderful friends as these that would take the time out of their lives to come see me for such brief visit.

Thursday 29- warmer today in the 70s.
I still wasn’t feeling very well, kinda achy, so all I did was my stretches.
Jimmy and Clarice made the trip from Norwalk to spend a few days at the Stonebreaker Ranch. They had arrived the day before and were literally having a blast shooting their rifles at targets. I got there early to help them shoot holes in cans and other stuff we found lying around. They also had clay disks that we toss into the air and blow out of the sky with our shotguns; what fun!
I had to leave around 2PM to take Kelly and her sick cat to the vets. The poor kitty has some kind of flu or cold. The Vet gave her a bunch of meds cat and I drove them back home. I hope the kitten will be okay.
I made it back the Stonebreaker’s just in time for dinner, imagine that!

Friday 30- wonderful day!
I did my stretches and made my way back over the Stonebreaker’s and we shot at targets most of the day; we’re all pretty good shooters by now!
We had dinner and I stayed around for a movie called “RED” (2010) starring Bruce Willis; dang good film!

Saturday 31- the weather is still very nice for this time of the year around these parts; 76 degrees!
I did my stretches and went shooting again until 2PM when Jimmy and Clarice had to wrap it up, load up all the toys, and head on back home.
I finished the astronomy book “365 Starry Nights” and posted to my Journal.
I will go for a run just before midnight to run out the old and run in the New Year!

Being as this is the last day of the year and I have a few hours to reflect on it before it goes, I will try to put it to words here as brief as I can.
I am blessed having friends and family who care about me. Like I said earlier, it surprises me. This year had its ups and its downs: I have lost two souls very dear to me; one a very dear friend, the other I met again after 55 years of separation and never really got to know. I have stopped writing my newspaper column, but have written two books that I didn’t know I could. I’ve had my 60th birthday party attended mostly by strangers bringing gifts and a few dear friends being close. I had all my teeth pulled but still can smile. I continue to exercise and be in good health; life is good!
I asked someone once what they were doing for Christmas; their reply to me was, “It’s just another day.” Later, I asked this person the same about New Year’s Eve and they said the same to me, “It’s just another day.”
I guess it’s just another day if you let it. Every day is just another day, and the day after that, and the day after that until you have no days left. I feel these “special days” are days we set aside for reflection, for being with and in communication with the ones we love, to bring us full circle so the days are not just another day. I for one intend to make each and every day a special day until I run out of days. I now believe that is the reason why I write this journal and I never really thought of it in this way before until writing this tonight.

CREATE!

November 2011

Welcome to the month of November!
I did my stretches and went for a night run. Then at midnight on the November 1st I started writing my 50,000 word novel for the National Novel Writing Month. I was up until 3:30am when I finally fell asleep with the first chapter and 2000 words completed.
I awoke at 10am and did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
Kelly and me went to town to take care of some errands and shopping. I stayed over at her house yapping till 7pm and headed home to write some more and stayed up till 5am.

Wednesday 02- I awoke around 1pm and did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, lifted weights, dumbbells, and rode my bike.
I started right into writing.
I went for my evening walk.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.
I now have over 7000 words and 3 and a half chapters complete in my novel.

Thursday 03- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran two miles.
George Stadler stopped by in his 72 Ford pickup he just acquired from a friend for 65 dollars.
I went for my evening walk.
It was just too windy to go for a night run.
I completed 10,000 words so far and decided to watch two episodes of “Warehouse 13” as kind of a prize. Then I wrote another 800 words before I went to bed.

Friday 04- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, lifted weights, core trainer, and ran almost a mile but had to turn back because it started to rain. It was winding and rainy all day long.
I worked on my mailbox that I’m going to put up down on Lear and Winters. I painted my name and home address on it and would have taken it down there to plant into the ground but because of the rain I figured that the paint wasn’t dry enough and might wash off.
Dana called saying him and Karen were having computer problems and needed my expertise. He picked me up, I solved the problem, and he brought me home.
I wrote another 2000 or more words today. I’m up to about 13,000 words; I most have been crazy the day I joined to do this :)


Saturday 05- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I went and planted my mailbox at the corner of Winters and Lear Ave.
I called a few family and friends.
I went for my evening walk.
I wrote most of the day.

Sunday 06- I did my stretches.
I cleaned out the small camper real good.
Then it rained most of the day so I just wrote in my book “Rainbow at the End of Tomorrow”- I am over 18,000 words now with 9 chapters written.

Monday 07- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Mostly I just wrote. I have well over 20,000 words and 10 chapters written. Chapter 10 has over 2500 words, most chapter go a little over 2000 words. I seem to write about really, really good people and really, really bad people. Sometimes I wonder where I get these horrible ideas; maybe CSI? Some from books I’ve read?
UPS delivered my Lenovo A1 Tablet today. Played around with it a short spell and went right back to writing. I’m just a crazy geek kinda guy I guess.
I finished chapter 10 and then watched an episode of “Castle” for a treat!
I began chapter 11 and have no idea where it will lead me...

Tuesday 08- I did my stretches.
Kelly and me went to Yucca Valley to do some shopping, get her tire replaced, and fill her propane tank. We got back to her house about 9pm and I helped her carry in her groceries, put the tire back on (I took it off that morning), and connected her propane tank back up. I stuck around for a spell and got home around midnight. I wrote about 300 words before I went to bed, it wasn’t much…

Wednesday 09- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, dumbbells, weights, and rode my bike.
I had to drive the Harley to 29 Palms to pick up a package at the post office.
Wrote most of the day…

Thursday 10- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
It was a gloomy, cold to the bone windy day.
I wrote some more.

Friday 11- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, dumbbells, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I put up a set of solar panels I had to take down a few months ago for repair.
I am now done with chapter 13 and wrote up to or more than 28,000 words.

Saturday 10- I did my stretches.
It rained and drizzled all day long.

There was a barbecue at the community center, but I didn’t feel good so I just stayed home.

Called family and friends.
I wrote all day.

Sunday 13- I did my stretches and went for a morning walk.
I’m still not feeling good.
I found my iPod Shuffle in a pocket on the backpack!
I went for my evening walk.
I wrote all day. The word count is 34,147…

Monday 14- I did my stretches and went for a morning walk.
I stopped by at John Massey’s house to see him and the work he’s done to his place.
I’m still feeling under the weather.
I went on my evening walk.
I wrote all day. The word count exceeds 36,000 now.

Tuesday 15- I did my stretches and went for a morning walk.
I went for my evening walk.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.

Wednesday 16- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, lifted weight, and went for a mile run.
I went for an evening walk.
Word count 42937

Thursday 17- I did my stretches, yoga, and went for a mile run.
I went to John Massey’s to take pictures of his jeep to send to Ray.
I went for my evening walk.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.
Word count 47159

Friday 18- I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I sat outside and had breakfast while I watered the plants.
I went for my evening walk.
At 8:01 PM I completed 50095 words and the challenge is over!!!
NOW I CAN GET MY LIFE BACK!!!!

Saturday 17- I did my stretches, yoga, and went for a mile run.
I went to John Massey’s on my electric bike just for a visit.
I went for my evening walk.
I’ve been hiding out lately in my camper reading Treasure Island.

Sunday 20- I did my stretches.
I went for an evening walk.
I called family and friends.

Monday 21- I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, and lifted weights.
Chris came by with my USDA groceries. He said 118 folks showed up for food at the center.
John Massey came over with a whole lot of oranges and apples. He got them from his son who came down to help him out on the reconstruction of his house.
I went for my evening walk.

Tuesday 22- I did my stretches and went for a mile run.
I rode my electric bike over to visit John Massey to see how he was doing.


Wednesday 23- I did my stretches and decided I needed to get some work done around the house; these short days are not helping at all, seems like I just get up and it’s evening in a few hours.
I topped off the batteries with water, move this and that around, and been going through my files getting rid of junk I don’t need anymore; a never ending task!
I went for my evening walk and hid out in the camper reading.

Thursday 24- I did my stretches.
I continued to do work around the house.
I had pancakes for dinner. There were places I could have went for Thanksgiving dinner, but this Saturday I have two dinners I have to attend and thought that this would make up for today.
I went for my evening walk.
I feel like I have a large hole missing in my center that I must fill. It turned out to be writing! So I’m starting Book Two of Rainbow at the End of Tomorrow. I am well over the 50,000 words of the National Novel Writing Month, which I attained on Friday 18th, but I just got so involved with what the story was evolving into I now have to continue it.
Ami Ven, I’ll get around to your blog Friday night and read some of those great short stories you write about of NCIS that I like so much!

Friday 25- I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer ran a mile, and lifted weights.
I went to visit John Massey on the electric bike (gotta get some use out of it).
Joel called to tell me the electric power went out. He called a few hours later to tell me it was on again.

Saturday 26- I did my stretches, yoga, and went for a mile run.
I went to two parties today.
I went to the Villarreal’s Turkey Bash at 1pm.
Then I went over to potluck at 4pm where there were some eighteen hungry folks showing up.
Then I went back to the Villarreal’s to listen to some guitar players and eat a plate of smoked turkey and other vittles.

Sunday 27- I did my stretches.
I went for an evening walk.
I’ve been hiding out lately in my camper reading Treasure Island.
I called family and friends

Monday 28- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
I woke up with a throbbing headache because I quit drinking coffee on Saturday night. I must have drunk enough Saturday to last me all through Sunday.
I finished all my Christmas cards and their ready to mail out.
I went for my evening walk.
I went out to my camper to read Treasure Island, but fell asleep.

Tuesday 29- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I went to my mailbox and then to Yucca Valley to get supplies.
I took my blood pressure and it was quite high and my throbbing headache continued from yesterday. I decided to have a cup of coffee when I got home; I did and I feel much better, headache went away. I think I’ll just try to taper off the coffee instead of quitting it all at once.
I went for my evening walk.
Chris called from the center wanting to know where Cody lived so the center can give him and his family some extra food they have. I drove to the center just before Bingo started and took the food over to Cody and his family live.

Wednesday 30- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I went to Stoney’s and took a nice hot shower, washed my clothes and while they were drying I went to my other mailbox over on Lear Ave.
It got very windy around 4pm after my evening walk.
It rained later on into the night.
I finished reading "Treasure Island".

October 2011

Welcome to the month of October- I did my stretches, lifted weights, core trainer, and ran a mile.

The picture above is of these vase like things made of mud by some kinda insect. I found them on the backside of my outside temperature gauge when it blew down off the wall in high winds. It appears that whatever was birthed in them are now gone. Weird!!!
I went to visit John Massey.
I mostly worked on my book filling in some gaps here and there.

Sunday 02- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
Roger needed help with Stoney’s car.
Again I mostly worked on my book filling in some gaps here and there.
Kelly came by to pick Solomon up.

Monday 03- Kelly picked me up and we went to Palm Desert for her doctor’s appointment. While in the waiting room I watched lecture 28 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Nervous System 3.
Then we went to Sizzler in Yucca and ate like pigs, did some shopping, and ended up at her house about nightfall where we yakked for a spell.

Tuesday 04- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I worked on my book filling in some gaps here and there.
Mat came by and put up a new antenna that went bad so now I’m back on the internet! Yippy!!!!!
I watched the rest of the “Fringe” episode that I was watching when my antenna died. And then I watched a new episode of “Castle”.

Wednesday 05- I did my stretches, lifted dumbbells, and ran a mile. It was very windy and there were some raindrops here and there but it felt good to run in that weather- kinda makes me feel alive.
I did my laundry over at Stoney’s, and then checked on a friend’s house and watered her plants.
When I got back home I took a broom and mop to the floors of my home and now it’s all clean and nice smelling!
I went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: White Dwarfs.
I watched lecture 29 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Stem Cells/Cloning 1.

I found out that Steve Jobs had passed on earlier in the day- I am really sad about that after having seen him and his company grow from the beginning. I’m not a fan of anything except what works for me; never bought into this fanboy/girl thingy. I used an Apple II when I was in college- before that DOS- before that OS MVS JESII on an IBM 370. I have ancient computers lurking around my home: a Newton here, a TRS Model 100 there. Old laptops that run on Win 3.2 on up to Win7, a couple of Macs from the earliest to my MacBook running Snow Leopard. I never did like the Mac OS simply because I couldn’t choose what platform to run it on without a lot of tweaks and I’m more familiar with Windows.
Now with all that being said I believe that the iTouch is one of the greatest devices ever created. I never thought I’d watch anything from a 3.5 inch screen, been there done that, but with the Retina display I can very easily watch my lectures from MIT and Berkeley. Take pics and movies and upload them to FaceBook. Dang I can even place calls using Skype. I do have an iPad but find it too bulky to use as an ereader or whatever- still trying to find a use for it- but the iTouch I pop into my pocket and I’m off on my Harley :)
I’ve watch Steve ever since he created Apple, he’s a little younger than me, and watched Bill, too. These are guys like you and me who had a vision. For example: I was shown by a Xerox Rep a top secret device when I was taking classes at Xerox for forms creation on the 9700 Laser Printer. In a locked room of the security section in the building was a small computer. It looked like the 820 with a small laser printer hooked up to it; no big deal I thought. What was amazing was the screen; no command line with blinking cursor but a GUI, with a trash can and a few other icons on a desktop and an arrow controlled by a mouse, wow! I said to myself this is where computing is going. Steve Jobs saw the same thing and said to himself this is where I’m taking computing! There is a difference…

I watched a new show called “Terra Nova” on Hulu and it seems to be pretty good so far.
I went for a night run.

Thursday- 06 I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I went for an evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: Supernovas.
I watched lecture 30 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Stem Cells/Cloning 2.
I watched “Starship Troopers 2” I guess it wasn’t very good because I’ve seen it before and had completely forgotten about it.
I went for a night run.

Friday 07- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I printed up an agenda and flyer for the Neighborhood Watch that Linda sent me this morning and needed it by noon.
I went to my mailbox and mailed a letter for Kelly. Then I drove to this bike shop on the north side of HWY62 just before you get to Yucca. I met a guy call Ian who was waiting for his bike that was in the back getting new tires. Ian is a Marine and headed on his bike to Ohio to visit some buddies of his who had recently got out. I’ve never been to this shop before and I was buying oil and a filter for the Harley. I reached into my wallet to get a credit card and the owner said we take cash only so we can provide the lowest of prices for our customers, besides, he went on to say, card companies charge him $600 a month to use them in his store. Well cash it was and the prices seemed okay.
I got home and changed the oil on the Harley. After watching how to do it on YouTube a few times it was easy to do.
I watched a new episode of “Fringe” on Hulu.

Saturday 08- I did my stretches, lifted weights, core trainer, and ran a mile.
John Massey came by wanting me to printout a chapter of his book. While I was at it I printed out a chapter of my own book.
Seimi came by to yak for a spell.
I called Family and Friends throughout the day.
I watched lecture 31 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Molecular Medicine 1.
I watched “Silent Running” (1972) Starring Bruce Dern on YouTube in nine parts. It was a movie I watched when it first came to theaters, about; all of Earth’s forests, wetlands, and deserts are stored off Earth on spaceship cargo haulers. Pretty cool movie still!

Sunday 09- I did my stretches. My day off from exercising!
I started collecting all the tools I have lying about and cleaning them with the used oil I got from the Harley.
I watched about half of Avatar.

Monday 10- I did my stretches, yoga, lifted weights, and ran two miles. I was going to only run one mile but it was such a beautiful day and you never know how many beautiful days you have in your life to run two miles so I ran two.
I did more cleaning of Tools- this is going to take a few weeks.
I watered Linda’s plants.
I went to the Neighborhood Watch and then the board meeting- kinda burned me out, I hate doing meetings.
I finished Avatar- already seen it a few times- great movie!

Tuesday 11- I did my stretches.
I met Sami at the park in JT and she went over my book for grammar and such. She called me a few days earlier and introduced herself and said she is an author and staying at Sandy’s house while she’s away. We spent the whole day yapping about this and that. We decided to write a fiction story through email- she writing a paragraph and then I write one. Sami is a pleasant and easy to get along with.
I watched a new episode of “Warehouse 13”.

Wednesday 12- I did my, lifted dumbbells, and ran a mile.
I drove to Yucca and did some shopping before I picked up my parts from the Harley shop that finally came in.
I did a bunch of updates on computers. It seems like everybody (Meaning Microsoft and Apple) wanted to update. I installed OS5 on the iPad and iTouch after updating iTunes. Then it was security updates for Microsoft. I played around with the new OS5 for the rest of the night and found it made the iPad very useful to me as before it just didn’t cut it in my book. The browser was updated and much more user friendly.

Thursday 13- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I worked on Tools most of the day- I keep finding them around the yard.

Friday 14- I did my stretches, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I watched “V for Vengeance” a really thought provoking movie that Kelly set up for me to watch at an online movie site called Justin.tv that was interesting just by itself.

Saturday 15- I did my stretches, yoga, and rode my bike.
I went over to Kelly’s house and we sat outside doing a little stargazing- about four hours worth.

Sunday 16- I did my stretches.
I called friends and family throughout the day.

Monday 17- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, lifted weights, and ran two miles.
Chris ran out of gas.
I worked on tools some.
I had to take the sissy bar back off because the plates that hold it weren't drilled right and placed the tail lights too far forward- I re-drilled the holes in the back of the plates a larger diameter so the tail light extenders would fit through the dang hole- found nuts for the bolts that didn't come with any, I had asked for them but I guess the parts guy forgot- and put the whole dang thing back on correctly so my Ms. Honey Badger can rest her back and not slide off onto the road! What a pain in the butt, but worth it!
I went for my evening walk.

Tuesday 18- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
Worked on tools
I went for my evening walk.

Wednesday 19- I did my stretches, yoga, lifted dumbbells, core trainer, and rode the bike.
I signed up for National Novel Writing Month where you write a 50,000 word novel from scratch in 30 days.
Worked on tools…
I went for my evening walk.
I watched lecture 32 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Molecular Evolution.
I went for an evening run.

Thursday 20- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
I watched lecture 33 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Molecular Medicine 2.
I went over to Kelly’s to give her a ride to her mailbox and also to check out the sissy bar. I found out that the bolts that hold the turn signals were rubbing against the tire. I spent the rest of the day cutting and grinding them down to fit right. I hope what was supposed to be a simple order parts and install that started on August 02nd will finally be done! Not much of anything I ordered was compatible with one another and had to be sent back or reworked by me or the Harley shop.

I went for my evening walk.
I watched new episodes of “Warehouse 13” and “Castle” on Hulu.

I did my stretches and went for a night run.

Friday 21- I did my stretches, yoga, ran a mile, core trainer, and lifted weights.
I watched lectures 34 and 35 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Human Polymorphisms, and The Future of Biology. The Professors were Eric Lander and Robert A Weinberg. This is the end of the Biology Class.

Saturday 22- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I watered Linda’s plants and drove down to collect my mail. I found a Jury Summons in the mailbox- I thought to myself what else could go wrong. Just as I was about 500 feet from my driveway my rear tire started going flat, dang. Well no problem I thought, I’ll just pullout the nail and put a plug in it- nope it appears to have an inner tube, dang again. I’ll wait till tomorrow to pull the tire off.
I told Kelly I needed company, I was feelin kinda down, so she invited me over to her place. I brought over my tablets and she really liked the iPad and played with Google Earth showing me where used to live- I did the same for her showing places where I moored my sailboats when I lived in King Harbor. We ate crackers spread with spicy refried beans topped with sharp cheddar and olives. We kept her begging dogs and cats at bay with a water spray bottle.


Sunday 23- I did my stretches.
I mostly spent the day talking to friends and family who called. I been having trouble with my landline phone and had to forward it to my computer to use Skype to call them back.
I removed the rear tire from the Harley and took pictures of everything I did so I’ll not be having any troubles putting it back together- it actually wasn’t that hard.
I watched a new episode of “Fringe”.

Monday 24- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, dumbbells, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
Desert Cycle and got tire fixed. Doctors, Rite Aid, Staters, Kelly’s.
I went for my evening walk.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.

Tuesday 25- I did my stretches and ran two miles.
I watered all my plants.
I mounted the tire back on the Harley- what a pain!
I test drove it and ended up at Kelly’s and we yapped for a spell.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.
I practiced my guitar and tried recording a couple of songs.

Wednesday 26- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
I wrote last paragraph of chapter one of The Pawn, my collaboration with Sami.
I read and caught up on astronomy reading.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.

Thursday 27- I got on my Harley and drove to the Doctor’s office to pick up the signed jury duty summons and went right back home.
I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
Mostly I worked on computers all day. One of my Win 7 came up with a warning that the software was bogus. I knew it wasn’t and had to go through Microsoft to get it corrected- felt like strangling the robot voice on the other end of the line.
I went for my evening walk- still can’t find my iPod Shuffle with my astronomy lectures on it.
The cheap Android Mid 900 Tablet I bought for $60 still wasn’t working right with the Uberoid V5 version that I had loaded on a few months ago using number 8 settings- video wouldn’t play correctly. I read up some more and decided to try setting 7 and it looks to be running fine now. But now I find that Uberoid has a version 6 out, dang, so I downloaded it and may try it tomorrow.

Friday 28- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I updated the Mid 7” to Uberoid V6 and it seems to be running better.
I went for my evening walk.
I watched “Sahara” on the Mid 7” tablet and it ran very well on the new version of Uberoid this time.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.
I practiced my guitar.

Saturday 29- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I called Family and Friends throughout the day.
I went to potluck at our community center-
I went for my evening walk.
I stopped off at Kelly’s to bring her some potluck leftovers and stayed over for a spell.

Sunday 30- I did my stretches- my day off from exercising.
I fixed Kelly’s fence so her little rat dog would have a harder time escaping, and then put a plug in her flat tire.

Monday 31- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, lifted weights, dumbbells, and rode my bike.
I watered my plants.
I wrote another couple of paragraphs in reply to Sami’s latest one sent to me- I killed off three of the stories characters :)
UPS arrived with the 8Gig memory for my netbook.
I’ve been fretting over what to write for my 50,000 word novel in the National Novel Writing Month that starts tonight- I don’t have a clue but I guess I’ll find out tonight. My name for the novel is “Rainbow at the end of Tomorrow”- Wish me luck!

Goodbye to you October! Such a nice month you were!!!

September 2011

Welcome to the Month of September! I did my stretches, lifted dumbbells, and rode my bike.
I finished two HP classes: “Building your first web page” that I take once every two years to keep my skills up, and “Unlocking the potential of Windows® 7 Media Center” because I didn’t know it was included in Win7. I started a while back and just wanted to get them out of the way.
I watered the plants, did the laundry, and cleaned the kitchen.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I went over to Kelly’s to repair her flat tire.
I went outside to do a little stargazing with the binoculars.
I watched lecture 6 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Genetics 1.
I talked to Stevie Villarreal yesterday and she told me she treats September 1st as the first day of fall. I think I’ll do the same for now on. I told her that when my cement pond freezes that’s the first day of winter for me.

Friday 02- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
I went to the bank, WalMart, Staters….
I watched lecture 7 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Genetics 2.

Saturday 03- I did my stretches, lifted weights, core trainer, and ran a mile.
I went over to John Massey’s for a short visit. He came by two hours later and got some canned foods I had to spare. I took a break from fixing my truck’s door and went back over to John’s and jawed with him for short spell.
As I was watering my aloe vera plants that I have in the shade of the porch I noticed a rattlesnake was curled up next to one of the planters. I said hi to her and kept talking to calm her down as I got a broomstick and a bucket with a lid. I know that the snakes can’t understand what I say but I do feel that they do understand my intent not to harm. I’ve done this before many times with the same outcome. Hopefully the day never comes when we surprise each other and I get bit! I very carefully coached her with the broomstick into the bucket that was lying on its side; she did not rattle and was very at ease through the whole process. I tipped the bucket upright put the lid on and thought about getting the camera to video me letting her go but decided I didn’t want to stress her out and get her out of the bucket as soon as possible. I walked her down the street a good ways and set her free by some nice creosotes bushes with lots of critter holes around. She took her time coming out and I talked to her as she slowly made her way into the chaparral. It was a wonderful experience!
I watched lecture 8 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Genetics 3.

Sunday 04- I did my stretches- my day off from exercising.
John Massey came by excitedly telling me of being plagued by killer bees that he found when he was clearing away some debris in his front yard. I said he might be able to use water to flood them being that the bee hive is on the ground; I’ve seen that on TV where the fire department was call to remove bees by spraying water on the hive. Sometime later I went over to John’s to see for myself what was going on. He was fitting his truck with a hose nozzle stuck out the driver’s side window wrapped with towels so the bees couldn’t get into the cab when he shut the door. But he forgot one minor detail which I pointed out to him; when he shut the door it would crush the hose coming inside the truck. John asked me if I could turn on the water when he finally got it all figured out and hooked up right, but by then the bees were starting to get mighty frustrated at us humans being there and started bumping into me, I mean really bumping into me! I quickly said my goodbyes to John, got back into my truck and drove off. The last I seen of John was from the rear window of my truck as I sped away; he was flapping his arms like a turkey taking flight as he hightailed it into the safety of his truck’s cab.
I’ve been reading my wonderful sister's, Paula Frighetti, book “2012 Transition and Transformation.” I'm trying to keep an open mind as I read :)
I watched lecture 9 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Human Genetics.

Monday 05- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile. Just before I was to run it rained a little but I went anyways. The sky was overcast with heavy dark stratus clouds and it rained or sprinkled most of the day.
I made my way over to John Massey’s to see if he survived them killer bees; I was kinda worried. He was still alive and said he got bitten five more times before he finally flooded the hive and then ran his truck over and over it a dozen times or so. I guess John got pretty mad because there weren’t that many bees flying around compared to yesterday.
I watched lectures 10, 11, 12 and 13 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Molecular Biology 1, 2, 3 and Gene Regulation.

Tuesday 06- I did my stretches, lifted weights and dumbbells, core trainer, and ran two miles.
I watched lectures 14, 15, and 16 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Protein Localization, DNA 1&2.

Wednesday 07- John Massey drove me to the dentist office for some major dental work that will put me out of commission for a few days. Lots of pain! Lots and lots of pain.

Thursday 08- I’m really hurting and taking codeine for the pain. Kelly is really sick and needs her meds, so I decided to drive Stoney’s van to Rite Aid to pick them up for her. I started the van and was driving down the street and noticed that the dang gas tank was running on empty. I took the chance and just made it to the Arco gas station in 29 and put $20 in it. I’m not too happy about that!
I dropped Kelly off her meds and spent the rest of the day inside in bed. I’ve also been adding to the short story I wrote two months ago now I have some down time.

Friday 09- I had an appointment with the dentist today @2pm. John Massey drove me there again. I guess the dentist wanted to torture me some more with his hideous assortment of saws, hammers, drills, and other scary instruments of his trade… I was in very much pain when I left there.

Saturday 10- I was still in pain from yesterday’s dentist appointment so I didn’t do much of anything. The pill I take for the pain make me sick to my stomach. I did update the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I watched lecture 17 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Recombinant DNA 3.
A bad storm came our way and knocked the electric out in our area from 8:34pm to 6:30am the next morning. I was on Skype yapping with Kelly when the storm hit and she asking me to come over just as we lost the internet. I spent a few hours over at her place until the worse had passed.

Sunday 11- I didn’t watch or read any programs about 911 and spent most of the day in reflection and seclusion.
I LOVE MY COUNTRY! I LOVE ALL AMERICANS WHATEVER RELIGION, RACE, OR POLITICAL PARTY THEY MAY BE. WE ARE ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS FIRST AND THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CONCEPT WE MUST LEARN. EVERYTHING ELSE IS SECONDARY! WE WILL BE PATIENT WITH NEW CITIZENS WE WELCOME TO OUR COUNTRY AS THEY LEARN OUR WAYS. WE WILL RESPECT THEM. PROTECT THEM. DIE FOR THEM. ALL WE ASK IS THAT THEY BELIEVE IN AMERICA AND THEY ARE CITIZENS OF THIS GREAT NATION FIRST AND EVERYTHING ELSE IS SECONDARY!

Most people have forgotten 911 except when it's the anniversary- while our troops over there remember it every day! We should send everybody who acts like its business as usual over to Afghanistan for a spell, especially our elected officials in Washington, give them an M16, some MREs, and place them on some border pass checking for terrorists that ought to do it!!!

Monday 12- I’m still recuperating from the dental work from last week and I believe that I will start easing my way into doing exercising tomorrow
I went over to Kelly’s house for a coffee party of sorts. I got back home around 9:30pm.

Tuesday 13- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I finished the rest of my pain pills, codeine, and am starting to feel better anyways. I’ll use up my supply of antibiotics tomorrow and will be happy to be off both.
A little back and forth from FaceBook:
Diana L. Roby: Believe you can and you're halfway there...........
Tom B: Hell! I'm half full!
Robert DeLoyd: Where?
Diana L. Roby: There, lol
Diana L. Roby: Where ever you’re going..... :)
Robert DeLoyd: But wherever there is I'll only be half way, dang, I guess you can say we are always halfway to somewhere but all the way to where we are, Right?
Tom B: Right!
Diana L. Roby: Yes Bob that is true and everywhere you go, there you are!!!
Robert DeLoyd: Where?
Diana L. Roby: ‎:-))
Robert DeLoyd: ‎:D

Wednesday 14- I did my stretches, lifted dumbbells, core trainer, and ran a mile.
Kelly picked me up and we spent the day shopping in Yucca at Vons and WalMart.
We had gotten back to her house and I was helping carry the groceries from her car when I saw this Fireball shoot across the sky to the south of me heading west to east. It traveled for less than a minute before it finally appeared to break apart leaving a brilliant streak across the sky! Kelly and I saw it at 7:45 and reminded me of videos of the Shuttle breaking up leaving a trail of debris. Fantastic!

Thursday 15- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran two miles.
I watered the thirsty plants.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
Soldered two 120 Watt solar panels together I’ve been meaning to do for a while now.
I went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about structures of the universe right after the big bang.
I watched lecture 18 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Recombinant DNA 4.

Friday 16- I did my stretches, lifted weights, core trainer, and rode my bike.
I helped John Massey with installing a sink in his kitchen.
When I got back home Linda Sibio was there picking up the Neighborhood Watch material she had me print up and leave in my mailbox. She had knocked the mailbox over and was trying to lean it against the fence. The box was going to fall over soon anyways but I kiddingly pretended to make a big thing about it like: Linda how could you knock down my precious mailbox! We both laughed.
I went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about comets, meteors, asteroids, minor planets of the Oort cloud and Kuiper belt.
I watched lectures 19 and 20 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Cell Cycle/Signaling, and Cancer- and other disgusting stuff about the intestines and how much of its lining’s dead cells are in poop.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.
I practiced my guitar.
I read aloud from the textbook “Astronomy Today” about the Formations of the Elements. Also read books on my reading list.

Saturday 17- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
I called Family and Friends throughout the day.
I rode the Harley down to get my mail and also to send out a couple of birthday cards.
I then went to visit Mac and checkout the work he and his son Dennis had done to Mac’s shop. I dropped by Kelly’s for a spell to see what she was up to. While I was out and about on the bike I stopped to visit Mat but he wasn’t home. I called him later to let him know I dropped by.
I went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about detecting planets around distant stars by their gravitational effect on the star causing it to ‘wobble’.
I watched lecture 21 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Virology/Tumor Viruses; very interesting story about a chicken tumor and how it was discovered that it was caused by a virus.
I went outside to do a little stargazing. I checked out Delta Cephei, a variable star, in the constellation Cepheus which has a period of 5.3 days where its brightness goes from 3.6 (brighter) to 4.3 in magnitude.
I practiced my guitar.
I read aloud from the textbook “Astronomy Today” about the Formations of the Elements: stellar nucleosynthesis. Also read books on my reading list.

Sunday 18- I did my stretches. It’s my day off from exercising.
I called a few folks up to remind them to come to the Neighborhood Watch meeting tomorrow.
I worked around the outside watering plants, cleaning out the porch and moving my exercising equipment around where it works better: I have a ceiling fan that was over the core trainer and I didn’t want it to lop off my head when I did my pull-ups. The bench press is now beneath the fan.
I tried to get in touch with John Massey and had to drive over to his house three times before I finally got him at home; his cell phone doesn’t get a signal around here. I wanted to remind him of the USDA food distribution and Neighborhood watch meeting tomorrow.
I watched lecture 22 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Immunology.
Read books on my reading list.

Monday 19- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
I did more work on the patio filling in some places with gravel that weren’t covered with cement pavers.
I couldn’t get a hold of Kelly; we were supposed to go to town. So I just moseyed on over to see if she was okay. She was okay but didn’t feel like going anywhere today so we’ll shoot for tomorrow. I hung out at her house for a long spell.
John Massey picked me up for the Neighborhood Watch meeting. We got there a little early. There were about 30 or more folks showing up plus a couple of police officers and their trainee. The officers gave a hurried presentation because they got called out on some emergency or some such. The rest of the meeting went as expected with everyone putting their thoughts and ideas in the air. Well they finally listened to my suggestion that I had brought up at the last meeting and did so again tonight about having the NHW meetings on the same night and just before the board (bore to tears) meetings so many of the NHW folks might stay around for it; the board meetings only have maybe two spectators and most times board members don’t even show. I stopped going myself because all they wanted to do was argue on the trivial with me and complain about why nobody came to their meetings.
I listened to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about parallax, parsecs, distances to stars, and apparent magnitude.
I read aloud from the textbook “Astronomy Today” about the Formations of the Elements: Iron formation in the cores of stars which starts at 3 billion Kelvin about the time that silicon 28 forms- wow photodisintegration! So excited these gamma rays they knock out the nucleus of the silicon 28 into 7 helium 4s. These helium 4s are the building blocks to the creation of heavier elements until iron 56 which is the most stable of all the elements; to go heavier requires a supernova!
I went for a night run.
Read books on my reading list.
I watched lecture 23 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Immunology 2. The MIT Introduction to Biology has helped me to better understand a textbook I was reading aloud last year (I thought reading aloud would improve my comprehension) but gave up halfway through the book because I had difficulty pronouncing those dang words. This course follows the book pretty well. I bought it used on Amazon for $14 called “The Cell a Molecular Approach 3rd edition”. I wish I had watched these lectures when I was reading the book! Now I know (sort of) how to pronounce the words :)
I’ve never took a biology course before and just found it fascinating how all this works at the molecular level and wanted to learn more.

Tuesday 20- I did my stretches, lifted weights, core trainer, and rode my bike.
I worked around the house and yard doing this and that; plants were happy to get some water.
I went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about the formation of stars.
I watched lecture 24 of MIT Introduction to Biology: AIDS.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.
I went outside to do a little stargazing and again checked out Delta Cephei to see if it had changed in brightness- I really didn’t notice any change so I must had caught it just before its nadir two days ago when I first checked.
I read aloud from the textbook “Astronomy Today” about “Making Elements Beyond Iron” using the neutron capture or s-process- where neutrons bombard nuclei of elements like 56Fe +N--> 57Fe and continues all the way to 59Fe that decays into Cobalt-59 which captures a neutron to form Coalt-60 and so on… Interesting… says that this slow neutron capture s-process is responsible for silver, gold, and lead. I had learned/always thought that these heavier elements beyond Iron-56 were created in supernovas. In the next section will be the discussion on supernovas. I’m really going to have to check up on this. What I was taught/ always thought was that stars much like our Sun in size can maybe create elements up to oxygen, more massive stars create heavier elements, but really massive stars could only burn up to Iron-56 which is stable and would not fuse thus the star’s core could not be held up by fusion, gravity would finally prevail and the core would rapidly collapse creating a supernova and that’s where silver, gold, lead and all the heavier elements were made. Maybe I was taught the easy version back then. Now I’m lost :(
Also read books on my reading list.

Wednesday 21- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
John Massey took me to the dentist.
I kinda got wiped out, painfully and mentally, from the dentist visit and the pain pill I took afterwards and didn’t do much of anything for the next 24 hours.

Thursday 22- I did my stretches.
I worked on the patio.
I watched three new episodes of “Warehouse 13”.

Friday 23- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
Kelly picked me up and we went to post office in Twentynine Palms where she spent the next hour filling out address forms on some packages she’s sending. We went to Rite Aid to pick up her meds and then onto Staters for supplies.
We spent the rest of the night until 1am outside hoping to see that satellite that’s suppose to fall out of the sky; unfortunately that didn’t happen nowhere near up but out in the Pacific ocean somewhere.

Saturday 24- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I called family and friends throughout the day and wished my really good friend Kula a happy birthday. Dang phone is still acting up dropping my calls.
I cooked all the stuff up I’m taking to potluck tonight: rice and stuffing.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa website and sent out the Newsletter.
About 15 folks showed up for potluck.
John Massey came by around 7:30pm to do a little stargazing with me.

Sunday 25- I did my stretches.
I did some work on the patio again today; also watered the plants.
I watched lecture 25 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Genomics.
I went outside again tonight to check on Delta Cephei and see if it had changed in brightness and this time I noticed that it was brighter than Epsilon Cephei whereas on my previous observations a few nights ago it was fainter.
I read aloud from the textbook “Astronomy Today” about “Making the Heaviest Elements” where the s-process (S stands for slow) stops at bismuth-209, the r-process (R stands for rapid) create elements like uranium and plutonium in the first 15 minutes of a supernova where more neutrons are freed because of the violence of the implosion jamming already heavy nucleuses with more neutron forming even heavier elements. So I guess when a teacher or someone says that that gold ring you have wrapped around your finger came from a supernova you can correct them and say that it came from the neutron capture s-process of a massive star.
I read from my reading list.

Monday 26- I did my stretches, yoga, and went for a mile run.
I went for my doctor’s appointment in 29 Palms.
I visited my friend Piper in Joshua Tree. Piper is the one who threw the 60th birthday party for me.
I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: hydrostatic equilibrium.
I watched lecture 26 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Nervous System 1. I found it very interesting.

Tuesday 27- I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
I drove to the Harley shop in Yucca to pick up the sissy bar and other parts to mount it correctly. I ordered everything on August 02 and it just came in last Thursday.
I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: electron degeneracy and white dwarfs; cool!
I went for a night run and then checked on Delta Cephei to find it had changed in brightness and is now about the same in brightness as Epsilon Cephei.
I watched two new episodes of “Castle” on Hulu.
I watched lecture 27 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Nervous System 2.
I read aloud from the textbook “Astronomy Today” about: Observational Evidence for Stellar Nucleosynthesis.
I read from my reading list.

Wednesday 28- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I got all my chores done and went to put the new parts and sissy bar on the Harley and quickly found out that I was missing some parts and the ones I had didn’t quite fit. I hate when you get set to do something and find you can’t because of something beyond your control. So I made the trip down to the Harley shop in Yucca and Larry the parts guy said they’re the parts that the catalog said would fit. But he found out as I that they don’t. Larry said to leave the parts with him and he’d call when he got it all figured out. Oh joy!

Thursday 29- did my stretches and lifted weights.
I have to wait around my house for FedEx to deliver a new HP DM1Z 11.6” netbook. I water the plants and do little things around the yard until FedEx arrives around 3pm. I spend the rest of the day doing updates and removing bloat from my new netbook. It is really a cross between a netbook and a laptop but more netbook. It has an AMD Dual-Core Processor E-350 (1.6GHz, 1MB L2 Cache)+AMD Radeon HD 6310M Discrete-Class Graphics, 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm), 250GB 7200RPM Hard Drive.
I was introduced to a wonderful writer by email from a friend. Her name is Sami and has read the first two chapters of my book. She’s giving me pointers here and there; just what I needed :)
Kelly came by to drop off her cat Solomon for me to watch for a couple of nights.
I watched two new episodes of “Warehouse 13” on the new HP and it performed nicely.

Friday 30- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I got to messing around with the new netbook so much I got lost in time. The reason for this new purchase is I like the compactness and energy efficiency of the netbooks but they’re a little strained when running multiple tasks and it’s been quite noticeable on my Lenovo S10-2 netbook lately. This new one should hopefully fill the gap with a more powerful processor, more RAM, more everything. So far I’m quite impressed with it.
Larry the parts guy still hasn’t called back :(
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
Goodbye to September- you kinda went by too quickly….

August 2011

Welcome to the Month of August- I did my stretches, yoga, ran a mile, core trainer, and lifted weights.
I went for an evening walk listening to Astro 7b lecture.

Tuesday 02- I did my stretches, lifted dumbbells, and rode my bike.
I went to Yucca to pick up my eyeglasses and stopped in at WalMart and then Staters to do a little shopping.
I ended up at the Harley shop and purchased a sissy bar, a bracket to hold it on the bike, back turn signals, a windshield that clips unto the handle bars; it should all be delivered to the shop on Thursday. Weren’t cheap; I told the parts guy to tell me how much it was and I'd tell him if she's worth it. But now my good friend Kelly won’t be sliding off the back end of the bike when I give it gas.
I got caught in the rain on my way back but I mostly outran the storm before it hit my house. I did get a little wet.

Wednesday 03- I did my stretches, yoga, lifted weights, core trainer, and ran a mile.
Dropped by Linda Sibio’s house to take over a Neighborhood Watch Manual I printed up earlier in the day. I stayed for a spell yapping with Linda and Blake about their art projects they are involved with. Mighty fine stuff!

Thursday 04- I did my stretches, yoga, lifted dumbbells, and ran a mile.
The water in my batteries was getting a little low so I filled them all up with distilled water.
The parts guy at the Harley shop said that most of the parts are on back-order, dang.
I went for an evening walk listening to an Astro 7B lecture.

Friday 05- I did my stretches, lifted weights, core trainer, ran a mile, and punched the bag some.
Updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.

Saturday 06- I did my stretches and ran two miles; I actually got up earlier than I normally do and it was still cool outside.
I got the Harley out and went for a short cruise around and picked up my mail. When I got home I gave the bike a good washing. She looks mighty pretty now.


Sunday 07- I did my stretches. Taking a rest today :)


Monday 08- My Birthday- 60 years old!
Since it’s my birthday I decided to run a mile for every decade, so I jogged six miles (I’m a slow jogger)! Also I rode my bike and did all my regular exercises: various stretches, yoga (cobra, child, cat-cow, frog?, and another I don’t know the name of), dumbbells, weights, punching bag, 10 full sit-ups, 10 pushups, core trainer (I can only do 5 pull-ups right now), 20 leg extensions, 20 leg curls.
I usually jog everyday and mix up my regular exercises from day to day. I try to take Sundays off. It all takes about an hour and a half to complete. Today it took me over three hours!

(picture of Linda Sibio above)

I went over to Linda’s to water her yard before going over to the community center to participate in our new Neighborhood Watch’s first meeting. It was masterminded by Linda Sibio, a local artist, and she put everything together and gave a great presentation to about twenty local folk. We elected her president, Nancy as secretary, Steve Tuttle as block captain, and I as treasurer. The meeting went very well with Linda having everyone introduce themselves and say a little about who they are; it was fun. Linda adjourned the meeting after we decided to leave open the date for the next meeting depending on when a police representative would be available to attend.

(picture of Joey and Piper below)

Then a bunch of us caravanned over to Piper’s house in the town of Joshua Tree for my birthday party. We got there around 7:30pm and it finally broke up about midnight. The party was the best I’ve ever had for my birthday. There were lots of folks showing up, most I didn't know, some brought gifts! Joey brought his guitar and we both played a little on it. Terry brought his and played for a spell. I know Piper put a lot of effort into it and I really appreciate that! I love all the new friends I've made and I thank Piper for inviting her friends into my life :)
I will remember this for as long as I live, especially the candles that re-light after blowing them out. Piper swears she didn’t know she bought the wrong ones. So here we are with 60 candles ah flame and everyone giving me birthday wishes before I could blow them out. Finally with the last wish done the candles were burnt over half way down and I tried to blow them out. Blake and Joey started helping me blow. We had to start pulling the candles off by hand putting them in a glass of water. The cake tasted like wax after that but Piper had cherry pie and ice cream on hand. Then I opened my gifts, I was a little embarrassed because I’m not used to this much attention, but I stuck it through and survived :)


Tuesday 09- I did my stretches and ran a mile- boy I’m really dragging from all the stuff I did yesterday on the 8th!
Mostly all I did today was do a little reading of a few short stories I picked up for free on my Kindle Reader.

Wednesday 10- I did my stretches, yoga, lifted dumbbells, core trainer, punched the bag some, and ran a mile.
I rode the Harley into 29 Palms; got gas, stopped by Desert Cycles and got me a helmet to replace the one Mac lent me. Then I went to Stater Bros to get some supplies. I almost didn’t have enough room on the bike to carry everything because I had an extra helmet to stash somewhere.
After I got back and everything put away and my shorts back on I got a call from Linda at the Harley Dealership in Yucca saying some parts I ordered finally came in; one part was the windshield! I drove the bike to Yucca and went to the parts desk and told them that I’ll take the windshield now but I don’t need the other parts yet until the rest of them come in. I took the windshield out to the bike and with a little effort and a hex tool that was provided put the windshield on the bike.
I stopped off at Home Depot to pick up a lock for the bike to replace the one Mac lent me. Unfortunately they only had Master Locks. I bought one anyways, I can always use it somewhere around my property, and will look elsewhere’s for one more appropriate.
The drive home was much nicer with the wind not blowing in my face at 80MPH.

Thursday 11- I did my stretches, lifted weights, core trainer, and ran a mile.

Friday 12- I did my stretches.
Because of a dentist appointment today 11am I went to bed early, about midnight, only to wake up at 4am. Dang! I just laid there for a spell before I decided to getup. Because of this I was tired, dragging my body around all day long.
I got to the dentist early, 10am, and filled out all the dang forms. Expecting him to pull some teeth I had a lot of anxiety, which is probably why I couldn’t go back to sleep last night. He didn’t pull any! He told me that the process takes about a month. Dang I wanted and was ready to get it over with that day! I went back home after stopping off at WalMart and Staters.
Ruth Denison over at the Dhamma Dena Desert Vipassana Center called telling me she has computer problems. For her I make house calls; she’s 89 years old. She had forgotten much of what I taught her about files and cut and paste. She recently, in May, had a fall and broke her shoulder. I didn’t know about this and almost kiddingly poked her in the arm but stopped when I noticed the sling; she went on to tell me all about it :) One thing she learned of importance from her fall was about breathing. A certain kind of healing breathing that you take a breath but not really take a breath but you breathe all the same at a level of consciousness where you are aware but not- I guess like the state between awake and sleep. But I do believe it is directed towards the pain at a transcending sort of way.

Saturday 13- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, ran a mile, and punched the bag some.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I went to WalMart to check on padlocks for my Harley. I need to give Mac his back. I picked up my mail on the way back.
Called Family and Friends throughout the day when I had the chance.
I was yapping at Kelly on Skype when she developed a chocolate craving, so at 7:30pm I picked her up n the Harley and we rode down to Staters where she went on a chocolate shopping spree. We eventually ended up sitting at a table at Jack in the Box yakking and drinking Cokes. I didn’t get home till after 11pm.

Sunday 14- I did my stretches.
In the evening I went over to Linda’s to water the yard. Blake was there painting the porch and we yakked for a spell until I had watered everything real good.

Monday 15- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, ran a mile, lifted weights, and punched the bag some.
I played with computers today switching out the SSD and RAM memory from one Dell Min9 that was running Win7 to another that was running Ubuntu. The switch went without a hitch and now I have Win7 on the Dell with the built in camera and Bluetooth and Ubuntu on the other.

Tuesday 16- I did my stretches and rode my bike.
Linda Sibio came by to pick me up to take pictures of a dog over at Stella’s. The poor dog was abandoned and Linda and Stella are trying to find a good home for him. I took a bunch of shots and Linda settled on two of them that I emailed to her later on in the evening.

Wednesday 17- I did my stretches, yoga, lifted dumbbells, core trainer, and ran a mile.
Mac called to ask if I could fine the receipt for the battery I bought for his wee little car and if I’d go down to WalMart with him to get it replaced because it is dead. I said sure, found the receipt, and waited for him for over an hour and a half to show up. Instead of driving his truck but Mac came and brought his whole family in the wee little car. We spent most of the day getting there and back and I waiting for them to get done shopping; I wasn’t a happy camper! But he is my friend :)

Thursday 18- I did my stretches, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I loaded up Win-XP on the other Dell Mini 9…
John Massey my neighbor came by to say hi. He just arrived back from Oregon where he was living for the past few years. He says he’s back to stay this time. He even bought a new truck!

Friday 19- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I went to the dentist. Not much fun today :(
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.

Saturday 20- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, ran a mile, and lifted dumbbells.
Brian and Naomi dropped by for a visit. It was mighty hot outside and they didn’t stay very long. They had a whole bunch of little girls plus their own in the back of their SUV. It seems that the kids had a sleepover and were all excited to be riding around the desert. Kid LOL!

Sunday 21- I did my stretches. My day off from exercising!
I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately everyday….

Monday 22- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
The temps got to 110 degrees and it was mighty hot outside.
A Red Racer Snake ate the baby doves I was posting on YouTube for the past couple of days. After the last video I took of the remaining baby the snake came back later and ate him too- I'm feelin mighty sad :(
Here are the videos:






Tuesday 23- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, punched the bag some, lifted dumbbells, and rode the bike.

Wednesday 24- I got up really late did my stretches and ran a mile in 106 degree temperature! I’ve ran in hotter weather but not in a long while. I did okay and feel fine.
I’ll probably just kick back the rest of the day to read so I’m going to post this to my journal; they’ve been getting kind of long recently.

Thursday 25- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, lifted weights, ran a mile, and punched the bag some.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.

Friday 26- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
It’s been really hot these last few days with temps sometimes over 110 degrees.
I went to 29 Palms with Kelly where we did some shopping for our supplies.

Video of Saturday's Storm that Blew My Hat Off!


Saturday 27- I did my stretches, core trainer, lifted dumbbells, and ran a mile.
Before I went to Potluck a storm passed by and I videoed it as it blew off my hat; I feel like such a dork sometimes :P
Potluck was today and I made my turkey stuffing. Over 15 hungry folks showed up! Dyane Carrol stirred up Sloppy Joes and a strawberry pretzel dessert that was mighty fine. Dorothy Jacobsen brought a marvelous potato casserole. Cal Myers had his fruit platter eaten all up by us. Chris Jonas made his famously fantastic macaroni salad. Marie Morrison cooked her delicious barbequed beans in a special secret sauce that was handed down from many generations of Morrisons. Rose Manish simmered some corn to perfection. Ruth Maltron sliced up some pudding bunt cake. Mary and Chris Koval brought fruit juice, blue jello, and spaghetti for us to enjoy.
I took leftover to Kelly’s so she could enjoy it too.
Watched Nova online “Hunting the Hidden Dimension” about Mandelbrot Fractals. I’ve seen it before but it was worth the re-watch.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/hunting-hidden-dimension.html

Sunday 28- I did my stretches. It is my day off from exercising.
I watched lecture 1 of MIT Introduction to Biology.

Monday 29- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
I watched lecture 2 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Biochemistry 1.
At 6pm I went to a Neighborhood Watch officers meeting at John’s house. Only a few of us officers showed up but it was enough to get some business done. I had earlier printed up a telephone list of members that Linda emailed to me and we passed them out to everyone.
Kath called to say her new Toshiba laptop was malfunctioning. I had her bring it over. I spent about two hours getting some of the crap off and tweaking it till I fixed it; seems she had a computer expert messing around with it.

Tuesday 30- I did my stretches, lifted weights, punched the bag for a spell, and rode my bike.
I watched lectures 3 and 4 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Biochemistry 2&3. I am really disappointed in the video because whoever was filming didn’t show the slides but focused on the teacher pointing at the slides with a laser pointer which was useless to me in understanding what the teacher was trying to convey. I’m bummed at this because I would think this to be very crucial, especially in the beginning, to demonstrate the complex structures of the amino acids and other chemical processes for our understanding.
Because her tire has a flat I drove Kelly down to her mailbox so she could pick up “some important stuff there” she said. When we got back to her house I filled the flat with air to find the leak; a screw was the cause. I will fix the tire tomorrow.

Wednesday 31- I did my stretches and ran two miles.
Kelly never did get in touch with me to fix her tire so I imagine it is still flat.
I watched lecture 5 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Biochemistry 4.
Good Bye to August you’ve been a mighty happy month!!!